Etihad Airways and South African Airways codeshare flights now on sale

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has commenced codeshare services with South African Airways (SAA) following regulatory approval, which enables both carriers to offer codeshare and interline services to key destinations on each others’ route networks.

Effective immediately, and under the first phase of the codeshare agreement,
Etihad Airways passengers can now travel on Etihad Airways’ marketed flights from
Johannesburg to four major destinations on the SAA network including: Cape
Town, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth. Codesharing on scheduled services
to other key destinations, including Livingston, Lusaka, Ndola, Harare, and
Victoria Falls is currently pending subject to local government approval.

In return, passengers
travelling from Africa can now access SAA marketed flights on Etihad Airways
scheduled service from Johannesburg to its hub in Abu Dhabi, and onwards across
the airline’s fast growing global network to Bahrain, Kuwait, Bangkok and Kuala
Lumpur. Other major destinations currently pending regulatory approval include
Shanghai, Singapore and Jeddah.

Kevin Knight, Etihad
Airways’ Chief Strategy and Planning Officer, said: “Increasing our reach into Southern
Africa is critical in meeting the demand from growing numbers of leisure and
business passengers travelling between Africa and the major emerging markets in
the Middle East, Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Australia.

“The partnership
agreement with South African Airways reflects our strategy of forming alliances
with airlines around the world to enhance the global reach of our network,” he
said.

Manoj Papa, SAA’s
acting General Manager - Commercial, added: “We are
confident that the new codeshare partnership will prove extremely popular with
business and leisure travellers who can now take advantage of the greater
choice and seamless connectivity across our combined networks and markets.”

Phase two of a wide ranging
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in
May 2013 makes provision for the two airlines to explore
areas of further commercial cooperation that provide costs saving and
operational efficiencies, which can be achieved through synergies and collaboration
across a number of areas including reciprocal Frequent Flyer Programme
participation, ground handling,
procurement and training.

Etihad Airways launched its service between the UAE and South Africa in
2005, and currently operates scheduled services to eight destinations in Africa
and the Indian Ocean including: Johannesburg, Khartoum, Casablanca, Cairo,
Nairobi, Lagos, Tripoli and Mahé in the Seychelles.

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